Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
An Irish Materia Medica (Author: Tadhg Ó Cuinn)
subsection 39
39. Arigentum uium: i.e. (mineral) mercury; it is hot and wet in the fourth degree; it has the penetrating, incising and dissolving virtues; it can be preserved in its efficacy for a long time, if it be in a closed vessel and in a cold place. It is said to serve well against animalcules and nits and every exudation that occurs in the hair, if meal of beans be put through it and it be boiled in vinegar
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like porridge, and when it is cooled, put the mercury in it, about half an ounce of it, mix it well, rub it in the hair, and it will preserve it from every harm that may follow. Clearly, the fumes of mercury do great harm to everybody that it comes in contact with, because it softens the nerves and prepares them for paralysis; when it gets into the ear or the mouth, it kills the person immediately; should it happen to get into the mouth, give him goat's milk in large quantities, do not let him rest from jumping and moving about, boil hyssop and absinth for him in ale or in wine, and let him drink it, and if this is not done he will promptly die. If the face be disfigured from salty phlegmatic humour or from the illness known as serpigo, i.e. ringworm, take the roots of curled dock, pound them finely, put unsalted butter and pig lard through it, mix in a little mercury, and rub it to the ringworm or the exudation, and it will cure it. Roots of hemlock or roots of stavesacre will serve instead of the curled dock, and if a woolen thread be drawn through the medicine and tied on the hair, it will kill the animalcules and nits as we have said. Note that it has five virtues i.e. the dissolving virtue, the virtue of penetrating the dense gross parts, the virtue of consuming wetness, the virtue of cleaning exudation, and the virtue of expelling superfluities. This is how the vehemence of mercury is extinguished, i.e. with a person's saliva and ashes. Item, if mercury be mixed with oil, vinegar, and white lead, and put on a scabby head, it will help with the skin disease and with every exudation, and will serve with many other things.
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